How to summarize PDFs with an AI agent

Put the PDFs in your project folder, have the agent convert them to text with pdftotext from poppler, then ask for a summary that quotes page numbers. This works the same in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. For scanned PDFs, you need OCR first, because they contain images, not text.

Checked against official docs on Oct 26, 2026.

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Claude Code

Install poppler (brew install poppler on Mac)
Put the files in ./pdfs
Ask: "Run pdftotext -layout on each file in pdfs/, then summarize each in 5 bullets with page numbers."

Codex

Same setup
codex exec "convert pdfs/*.pdf with pdftotext and write summaries to summaries.md"

Cursor

Same setup
Ask the agent to run pdftotext and write a summary file you can check

Grok Bot

Send the PDF to Grok Bot
It reads it on its computer and returns a summary or a document

Gotchas

Ask for page numbers so you can check claims.
Long PDFs can exceed the context window. Summarize in chunks.
Contracts and medical records may be confidential. Check who can see them.

The loadout for this job

Tools: Claude, ChatGPT
Repo: Anthropic Agent Skills
Model: Gemini 4 Argon
Bot: Grok Bot
Full setup: Best AI for summarizing PDFs and long documents

FAQ

What is the best way to summarize a PDF with AI?

Extract the text, then ask for a structured summary with page references.

Why does my agent say the PDF is empty?

It is probably a scan. Run OCR first.

Related how-tos

Sources

Commands change. Check the linked docs before you run anything. All how-to guides